Your Weekly Dose of Sanity-Saving Good News – “SB54 Passed!” Edition

California fights for its DACA citizens!

“California is their home and they are our future.” – Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León

State Attorney General Xavier Becerrafiled a lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration along with Maine, Maryland and Minnesota, arguing in his complaint that repealing DACA would deal a significant blow to California’s economy. California is home to 220,000 of the nation’s 800,000 DACA recipients.

The University of Californiafiled a lawsuit against the Trump administration last week Friday, saying rescinding DACA would unconstitutionally violate the rights of the university system and its students. University of California President Janet Napolitano on Tuesday issued a memo advising the current DACA recipients, numbering approximately 4000, that they are eligible to apply for a two-year renewal even if the program is phased out. Renewal applications are due by Oct. 5.Scholarships to help DACA kids have appeared! Mission Asset Fund, a San Francisco-based nonprofit with a long history of supporting Dreamers, along with the Weingart Foundation, announced it is now providing $495 scholarships so DACA recipients can safely renew their status. Any individual whose DACA status is set to expire between now and March 5, 2018, may still apply for renewal. The application deadline for these renewals is Oct. 5. Dreamers can apply for the scholarship at LC4DACA.org and receive a check made out to the Department of Homeland Security within 48 hours. These grants are available to community college, California State University and University of California students. Please help get the word out to students about this resource as quickly as possible.

Los Angeles is taking some first steps…

Garcetti continues to avoid using the phrase “sanctuary city,” saying that it is poorly defined. He said that Los Angeles defends its immigrants and that its police will not become immigration agents, but he added that the city does not protect criminals.

He issued an executive order this year that prohibits city employees from collecting personal information from individuals — including their immigration status — unless it is legally required or needed to carry out their job duties to limit the amount of sensitive information that would have to be turned over to authorities under federal law.

Earlier this year, immigration agents were told that they could not access parts of city facilities that are closed to the general public without a warrant or court order. However, immigration agents generally have a right to enter parts of city buildings that are open to the public to question or apprehend people.

Garcetti has said that the Los Angeles Police Department will continue to enforce Special Order 40, which bars officers from contacting someone solely to determine their immigration status.

The Constitution may come to rescue for DACA citizens!

Attorneys General from at least sixteen states and Washington DC are part of a suit, filed in federal court, arguing that efforts to rescind DACA are part of a racially biased Trump administration anti-Mexican campaign.The only time the Supreme Court touched on the legality of deporting immigrants without a trial was in the 1893 Fong Yue Ting vs. the United States decision. In the 1890s, immigration laws were designed to bar entry, not to deport long-term residents like the Dreamers, and there was a one-year statute of limitations on removing illegal entrants. Dissenting justices stated back then the arguments today’s attorneys will be using again:

immigrants are entitled to full due process protection under the Constitution

Mass expulsion was “cruel and unusual punishment”

it was “incompatible with the immutable principles of justice, inconsistent with the nature of our Government, and in conflict with the written Constitution by which that Government was created and those principles secured.”

The city of Chicago asked a federal judge on Monday to bar President Donald Trump’s Justice Department from denying public-safety grants to so-called sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with a federal immigration crackdown and preliminary injunction that would apply nationwide while the court challenge proceeds. Chicago’s attorney stated that Sessions had no right to force Chicago to choose between funding for crime-fighting equipment and programs, and that adopting an unconstitutional policy that would shatter trust with immigrant communities needed to solve crimes.

Oh yeah, SB-54 Passed!

In other Good News with our State Bills!

Most of this amazing list was put together by indivisiblesf.org. We added a few more that we were following too. These are bills that have made it through the first house and policy & fiscal committees of the second house (or have an urgency clause and are still alive).

Animal Welfare

AB485 – California becomes the first state to ban all puppy mill pet store sales! After Jan. 2019, pet store operators would be prohibited from selling live dogs, cats, or rabbits in a pet store unless they had been obtained from a shelter or rescue group. The bill would require dogs and cats affected by this law to be in compliance with laws requiring the spaying or neutering.

Economic Justice

PASSED & Sent to GovernorSB63 – Requires employers to allow up to 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave

PASSED & Sent to GovernorAB1701 – “Labor-related liabilities: origianl contractor.” Protects construction workers who have not been paid for a job by allowing them to seek their back wages and benefits from the general contractor, even if they didn’t work directly for them.

Education

PASSED & Sent to GovernorAB19 – waives the $46-per-unit fee for full-time students in California entering their first year of community college. Low-income students already can apply for a fee waiver, but the bill would cover the cost for an additional 19,000 students’ first year. Each student taking 12 units each semester would save $1,104 a year under the bill.

AB738 – From our own Assemblymember Monique Limón – requires the creation and adoption of a model curriculum in Native American studies, and encourages schools with grades 9 to 12, inclusive, without their own standards-based Native American studies curriculum to use this model.

PASSED & Sent to GovernorSR12 – Affirms support for access to comprehensive reproductive care

PASSED & Sent to GovernorHR6 – Affirms support for access to comprehensive reproductive care

Zombie Bills

These bills either died in committee, got held in the Appropriations suspense file, were moved to the inactive file, or failed a vote. This list is just as long as the “Passed” list, but as we’re just doing good news, we’ll just point out some of particular interest.

Held under submission AB1000 – Prohibits pumping the groundwater underlying deserts in protected areas (e.g. the Mojave Desert, national and state parks) if doing so will have an adverse impact. (“Held under Submission” = An action taken by a committee when a bill is heard in committee and there is an indication that the author and the committee members want to work on or discuss the bill further, but there is no motion for the bill to progress out of committee. This does not preclude the bill from being set for another hearing.)

And, now back to the rest of the world…Good News from DC!

IN A STUNNING move, the House of Representatives on Tuesday approved an amendment to the Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act that will roll back Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s expansion of asset forfeiture.

In a unanimous vote, the Senate has approved a resolution condemning white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other hate groups following the violent white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville. The resolution describes Heather Heyer’s death as a “domestic terrorist attack” and acknowledges two Virginia state troopers who died in a helicopter crash while monitoring the protests. It also urges Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate their acts of violence and intimidation.

While this isn’t a concrete victory yet, we’re happy to see Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Susan Collins working together to stop Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military. And West Point just acknowledged its first recognized transgender graduate by her correct name and gender.

Sunday Alert!

The Cassidy-Graham health care bill is turning into a real threat, but amazing people are working on great resistance weapons. Open up this Tweetstorm tool kit over coffee this Sunday and get started. Let’s make our legislators really hate Mondays.

Good Budget news!

Senate committees rejected key aspects of the Trump administration’s proposed budget. While this all still needs to be voted on by the full Senate, it’s promising that the committees voted to:

Reject President Trump’s plan to cut funds for biomedical research and would instead increase spending by the National Institutes of Health. They also limited the Trump administration’s ability to change the rules for federal grants to family planning clinics. Both the Senate and House Appropriations committees rejected Trump’s proposal to slash the payments for the “indirect costs” of university research funded by the NIH – utility bills, heating costs, pricey equipment, and other expenses that support their biomedical labs.

Good News for Elections!

Democrats have won 6 GOP-held seats in 2017. Republicans have won 0 Democratic seats.

Democrats won two GOP-held legislative seats in Oklahoma and New Hampshire on Tuesday, bringing the total number of state legislature seats the party has flipped since the November election to six.

Trump seems to have burned a few bridges in NH…

Bad News for the Global Warming Deniers!

(from ClimateHawksvote.com) The New York state supreme court just rejected ExxonMobil’s request to keep critical documents sealed in the #ExxonKnew case.

In 2015, Climate Hawks Vote members were the first to push state attorneys general to investigate Exxon’s knowledge of climate change. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in New York subpoenaed key documents from Exxon and the courts have affirmed that Exxon and its outside auditor have an obligation to produce all the documents that Schneiderman rightfully subpoenaed.This is a big win for those working to hold polluters accountable for the destruction of our planet and endangering of our communities.

Even the Pope thinks climate deniers are “stupid”. “I am reminded of a phrase from the Old Testament, I think from the Psalm: ‘Man is stupid, he is stubborn and he does not see.'”

Shkreli finally goes to jail something! Putting a $5000 bounty on Hillary’s hair finally did it! (from Salon) “Shkreli’s jail term is particularly surprising given that the U.S. justice system tends to systematically favor the rich and powerful, while punishing the poor and underprivileged. Just this year, a Virginia man was sentenced to a 137-year prison sentence for stealing tires; meanwhile, no one at Wells Fargo Bank was prosecuted for defrauding customers by opening at least one million accounts and credit cards on customers’ behalf without their knowledge. And despite their role in creating a recession that immiserated vast swaths of the populace, no bankers went to jail for their hand in the 2008/2009 financial crisis. Shkreli is a peculiar exception to a “golden” rule.”

Good News for people recovering from Irma!

Last week, Hurricane Irma swept through Florida, destroying homes and lives. As Florida residents begin to recover from the storm, we’re grateful to read about everyone who pitched in to help their neighbors, including these Syrian refugees who cooked feasts for evacuees, and this “chainsaw-wielding nun” who cleared fallen trees from roads. She explains: “The road was blocked, we couldn’t get through. There was a need, I had the means… Do what you can to help.”

Do something nice to do for Mexico!

Express condolences to the Mexican president – postcard or letter. As your neighbors, we grieve with you for the precious lives lost in the tragic earthquake. We are sorry our president is a horrible persondidn’t show appropriate sympathy. Please know that we in the US are praying for your people, the souls of those lost, and for recovery in your beautiful country.

And finally this, a blatant advertisement for us, Indivisible!

(Thanks as always to Rogan’s List, Jen Hofmann, Alison & Stephanie, Michelle at SmallDeedsDone, a whole bunch of other blogs, newsletters and facebook posts from fellow resisters and the whole wide highway of the internet.)